Mirakl, a platform used by companies such as Kroger, Siemens, and HP Enterprise to build online marketplaces, has raised $555 million in a series E round of funding led by Silver Lake. The French company is now valued at $3.5 billion.

Founded in 2011, Mirakl serves the tools for B2B and B2C companies to easily launch, manage, and grow marketplaces. It’s all about “unlocking the power of the platform,” helping businesses better compete with the giants of the ecommerce world such as Amazon and Alibaba.

Transform

So-called “digital transformation” is changing the face of just about every industry in the wake of the global pandemic, and with that comes growing expectations around what is possible through online channels. Throw into the mix “shrinking margins and new competitive pressures,” and this has created fertile ground for Mirakl to flourish, according to co-CEO and cofounder Adrien Nussenbaum. Indeed, Mirakl reported a 90% growth in bookings value year-on-year during the first half of 2021.

“Where cost-cutting and tweaking operational processes may have helped in the past, they no longer hold up against new competitors and digital giants,” Nussenbaum told VentureBeat. “Only an enterprise marketplace can enable businesses to meet the rising demands of their customers in an agile, scalable way. By tapping into networks of high-quality, trusted marketplace sellers, businesses with marketplaces are able to quickly respond to customers’ demands with lower costs and less risk than the traditional first-party ecommerce model.”

The Mirakl platform constitutes several elements, each tailored for different marketplace use-cases including B2B; B2C; and services. Mirakl also offers a catalog manager, which helps operators and merchants manage their product data and inventory, automatically remove products that don’t meet certain standards, and more.

Mirakl is also built on a modular foundation with APIs at its core, designed to help businesses integrate their marketplace with all their existing tools and technologies. There is also pre-built integrations with the likes of Magento and Salesforce’s Commerce Cloud to make it easier to share data across ecommerce platforms.

The Paris-based company, which also counts a U.S. hub in Boston, had previously raised around $393 million, the lion’s share arriving via its series D round last year. With another $555 million in the bank, the company is well-positioned to double down on its recent growth, including hiring some 250 engineers and pursuing potential “acquisition opportunities.”

Aside from lead investor Silverlake, other notable participants in Mirakl’s series E round included 83North, Elaia Partners, Felix Capital, and Permira.